Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

PWNA relies solely on monetary and in-kind donations to aid people with the highest need in the United States. Corporations and nonprofits donate quality in-kind products such as food, school supplies, and other essential items, which PWNA distributes with hundreds of reservation program partners to Native American Elders, families and children. Foundations and prosperous tribes also make grants to PWNA and a quarter-million individual donors make monetary contributions to help improve quality of life on the reservations.

All these donors share two things in common: They care about quality of life for Native Americans, and they recognize that less than 1 percent of charitable giving supports Native causes. As such, we recognize them as leaders in philanthropy and social responsibility. Through their support, Partnership With Native Americans provides more than $25 million in aid per year, championing hope for a brighter future for Native Americans living in hundreds of impoverished reservation communities.

In-Kind
Donors   Community
Investors   Individual
Philanthropists

In-Kind Donors

TOMS

TOMS is in business to improve lives. TOMS partners with PWNA as a Giving Partner because they recognized that American Indian reservations have the highest rates of need in the U.S. and that PWNA has the partnerships and distribution system in place to get their footwear to any school within our service area. Through their support, PWNA is able to provide TOMS Shoes and Winter boots to children year after year, until they graduate from high school.

Matthew:25 Ministries

Matthew 25: Ministries (M25M) has spent more than 25 years caring for a needy world. The first organization to give in-kind products to our organization, M25M’s early donations of basic products such as shoes were integral to our reservation services and enabled us to expand the number of partners and reservations we serve. Through our continuing partnership, Matthew 25: Ministries supplies an incredibly generous amount of material goods that PWNA delivers when partners need them—assuring we can deliver essential goods year-round.

International Aid

Focusing on health and disaster relief in the nonprofit world, International Aid is a vital supporter of PWNA’s year-round work on the reservations. International Aid is also a key contributor to our annual supply drive, providing the critically needed products our partners are requesting to assist their communities. International Aid’s ability to donate a diversity of health products ranging from hygiene kits to food supplements and medical equipment makes them a valuable and trusted supplier of PWNA.

reKind

Formerly known as Blusource, reKind focuses on helping organizations like PWNA meet the needs of the people they serve. An incredible organization and in-kind partner for many years, reKind has helped us lower inventory costs and find the right products at the right time. Assisting PWNA with high-need items ranging from baby products, school supplies and backpacks to vitamins, mouthwash and over-the-counter health products ensure we have the goods specifically needed by our reservation partners.

Medical Teams International

A nonprofit and global health organization focused on saving lives, Medical Teams is a regular contributor of quality in-kind products that are often unaffordable or inaccessible in remote reservation communities. During PWNA’s annual supply drive in 2015, Medical Teams donated essentials such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, floss and other dental supplies critical to Native youth and families. On some reservations, 40 percent of children and nearly 60 percent of adults suffer from moderate to urgent dental needs that can lead to life-threatening illness. Medical Teams donations help meet very basic but very real needs on the reservations.

Feeding South Dakota

This food pantry leading the fight against hunger is South Dakota has identified PWNA as a consistent resource to 60 reservations many Americans never see and few nonprofits ever reach. Feeding South Dakota knows that PWNA can rapidly distribute high-value items such as fresh produce and bottled water to tribal communities in South Dakota—meeting both their mission and ours. It’s a win-win-win partnership.

Feed the Children

Feed the Children is known for their generosity in “providing hope and resources for those without life’s essentials.” Feed the Children includes PWNA in their giving because they realize that food insecurity affects one in four Native American families. Feed the Children does a tremendous service by passing along quality food and other products in support of Indian country, knowing PWNA and its partners can get them to the people who most need them. Their support has helped PWNA meet a wider variety of nutritional needs on the reservations.

Kole Imports

Kole Imports is the premier wholesale distributor of fast-selling, unique merchandise, offering customers bulk quantities at competitive prices. Family owned and managed since 1985, Kole treats their customers the way they would like to be treated, and this includes having the products you need when you need them. This is certainly the case in their partnership with PWNA through which they offer a 6 percent discount to customers purchasing in-kind products that meet the needs of our reservation partners.

PepsiCo

This leading food and beverage company with their portfolio of 22 billion-dollar brands is a strong supporter of PWNA. Our annual supply drive aims at raising awareness of conditions on the reservations and raising an inventory of healthy products for distribution throughout our service area. During the drive, PepsiCo stepped up with critical donations of water, flavored water and foods such as Quaker Oats, helping to replenish our dwindling water supply during the Gold King Mine spill on the Navajo Reservation and providing foods used in winter emergency food distributions. We greatly value PepsiCo’s support.

Community Investors

The Walmart Foundation

Using their strengths to help others, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation create opportunities for people to live better every day, by accelerating upward job mobility and economic development for the retail workforce; addressing hunger and making healthier, more sustainably-grown food a reality; and building strong communities where they operate and inspiring their Walmart associates to give back. Whether it is helping to lead the fight against hunger in the United States or supporting women’s economic empowerment through training, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation are not only working to tackle key social issues, they are also collaborating with others to inspire solutions for long-lasting systemic change. The Walmart Foundation collaborates with PWNA through funding to help address hunger by enhanced food distribution for Native American Elders and youth, nutritional education, community garden projects, and training on food preservation such as cooking and canning. Read more about their 2016 grant and 2017 grant on our blog and check back often for project updates.

Newman’s Own Foundation

Turning all profits from the sale of Newman’s Own products into charitable donations that empower people to overcome adverse circumstances, Newman’s Own Foundation is a natural fit with PWNA’s mission. Generous support from Newman’s Own Foundation aids PWNA and our reservation partners in developing sustainable nutrition initiatives within tribal communities, such as access to fresh food and training to prepare healthier meals. Additionally, Newman’s Own Foundation is hosting the Native American Nutrition Cohort to improve impact on Native nutrition systems, and PWNA is one of nine nonprofits invited to participate. A repeat investor in our work, the Foundation also matched donations made to PWNA in the 2015 #GivingTuesday fundraiser and in 2016 and 2017 hosted a holiday challenge that helped us support Native nutrition.

American Red Cross

The North Central Division of American Red Cross is partnering with PWNA to enhance emergency preparedness on the reservations. Their grant funding is enabling PWNA to support numerous emergency preparedness planning projects in remote tribal communities. Often, tribal communities experience slow response from outside sources during blizzards, floods, hurricanes and other conditions that create the need for disaster preparedness and disaster relief. American Red Cross realizes PWNA is often a first responder in these situations and is investing in tribal disaster readiness, enabled by our reservation partnerships.

Individual Philanthropists

Kathryn S.

A talented New York designer, Kathryn wanted to look into her family history and made a discovery that greatly disturbed her. She learned that a distant relation, General Winfield Scott, was one of the many in the U.S. Army who forced American Indians from their homes and land following President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act of 1830. Having grown up with a profound respect for Native Americans, she felt dismayed by her own ignorance of her ancestor’s role in the “Trail of Tears.” She began to read everything about Native American history “and to understand the current Native American situation.” Once again she was shocked to learn about chronic poverty, hunger, health problems, and lack of educational opportunities that are largely unknown throughout the U.S. but that Native Americans face on a daily basis. Today Kathryn supports many Native American causes through her PWNA program donations and has a particular passion for PWNA’s education services.

Gary and Mary Ann C.

An amazing couple who, during their lifetime together, have turned their concern for Native Americans into a shared passion, both have Cherokee heritage and Gary was fortunate to know his Cherokee great grandmother. After visiting several reservations during a trip through the Southwest they were upset to the point of anger at the “third world conditions” they saw. Gary witnessed these same conditions in many countries during his 24 years of military service. They turned this anger into providing support for many of PWNA’s services that help to fight these conditions and, being especially concerned about the future of Native youth and education, they have chosen to become Heritage Circle members by leaving a bequest to our scholarship service in their Wills.

Virginia E.

A remarkable woman and friend of PWNA for more than a dozen years, Virginia has supported many of our education, food, and garden services—but has a special place in her heart to help support dialysis centers on the reservations we serve. In the late 1960’s, her husband Frank was in kidney failure and needed dialysis treatment. Virginia was the one who actually dialyzed him in their home in San Francisco using an automated home hemodialysis machine. Even with training this was a nerve wracking process that she did for nearly two years until Frank was well enough to receive a kidney transplant. Frank passed away in 2000 and, that was when Virginia first learned how PWNA supports several dialysis centers on Indian reservations. Virginia chose to honor her husband’s memory by becoming a Heritage Circle member, designating a memorial bequest that will be used to provide assistance to dialysis centers caring for Native Americans with diabetes and kidney disease.

Woody T.

One of our very first Heritage Circle members, Woody told us nearly 15 years ago that the wanted to honor the memory of his beloved mother who had at times in her life had faced many of the same prejudices and hardships still faced by Native Americans today. She was proud of her mixed heritage of Cherokee, Chickasaw and Melungeon, but it made her a target for abuse and discrimination during her lifetime that sometimes meant her family would go hungry. Since starting our partnership, Woody has supported many PWNA services so that Native American people will not have to be “cold, or hungry, or denied an education.”

Wayne T.

Since childhood, Wayne has always been moved by the dignity and gentle kindness of the Native American people he has met, despite the conditions of poverty in which many live. During his avid study of Native American history, he discovered the book Black Elk Speaks, which had a profound effect on his life, gave him “peace of mind” and was the inspiration for much of his extraordinary artwork. Wayne is retired but generously supports many PWNA services and has also become a loyal Heritage Circle member.

Bruce and Elizabeth R.

Sharing many interests during more than 30 years of married life, none of them was so keenly felt as their admiration and respect for the Native American people. Bruce related to PWNA that he has always felt that the dignity and character shown by Native Americans, despite their early treatment during the colonization of the new world—wrought with broken promises and untold cruelty. This made both he and Betty contribute to the cause and support PWNA’s mission. They both agree that helping Native American youth with education is instrumental in giving them the tools as adults to alleviate some of the injustices of the past and hardships of today.